Right, so I got this idea stuck in my head, wanted to see if I could actually make one of those ‘oiled up man’ images. Not like, for real, but digitally. Just messing around, you know? See what the software can do these days.
First off, I tried the old way. Fired up my usual photo editing program. Grabbed a stock image, some random dude standing there. Then I started playing with layers. Tried adding some shine with a soft brush, white color, low opacity. Looked kinda cheap, like bad plastic wrap.
Okay, plan B. Messed with the contrast, the highlights. Pushed the clarity slider way up. That just made everything look harsh and weirdly textured. Not slick or oily at all. Spent maybe an hour just clicking around, trying different blend modes, gaussian blurs, layer masks… nothing really hit the spot. It always ended up looking fake, like I just scribbled on the picture.
Trying out the new stuff
Then I thought, alright, let’s see what this AI stuff everyone’s talking about can do. Got onto one of those image generator websites. Typed in something simple like “muscular man covered in oil”.
Man, the results were wild. Some were okay, kinda close. But lots were just… bizarre. Extra limbs, weird shiny blobs that didn’t make sense, faces melting. You know how AI can be sometimes. Especially hands, always gets the hands wrong.
- Tried getting more specific: “photorealistic man, glistening skin, dramatic gym lighting, reflective oil”.
- Tried different models or algorithms the site offered.
- Played with negative prompts too: “no extra fingers, not blurry, realistic human”.
It was a real back-and-forth. Took way longer than I thought. You type something in, wait a minute, get four images back. Maybe one is usable, maybe none. Tweak the words, try again. Adjust some weird setting like ‘weirdness level’ or whatever they call it.
After maybe another hour or two of just prompt crafting and generating batch after batch, I finally got a few that looked decent. Not perfect, mind you. There was still usually something a little off if you looked closely. The way the light hit the ‘oil’ wasn’t quite right, or the skin texture looked a bit too smooth, like a doll.
So yeah, that was my little experiment. Started with simple editing, failed kinda hard. Moved onto the fancy AI tools, got closer but it was a struggle. It’s funny how you see these perfect images online and think it’s easy, but actually making them? Even with AI? Takes a surprising amount of fiddling and patience. Not as straightforward as you’d think.
